Gitte Marianne Hansen holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and an MA from the University of Copenhagen. She is a Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Japanese Studies at the School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University.

Gitte has an interest in character construction techniques and story repetition across genre, and in her research she looks at diverse fiction, such as Murakami Haruki’s, Kanehara Hitomi’s and Kirino Natsuo’s literary works, as well as Miyazaki Hayao’s animation and artwork by Aida Makoto, among others.

She is currently leading the UK Arts and Humanities research Council (AHRC) funded project, Genderign Murakami Haruki: Characters, Transmedial Productions and Contemporary Japan. The project aims to examine Murakami's literary works in terms of the processes of translation, transmedial production and the gendering of his characters. She is particularly interested in his female characters and their changing position and diverse representation. Part of this project is scheduled to be published with Palgrave Mcmillan as Women in the world of Murakami Haruki (forthcoming 2018).